


Of Each That is Lost

by LadyLunas



Series: Glass [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-11 22:56:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18433835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLunas/pseuds/LadyLunas
Summary: And yet, even with all the changes that happened to Darcy over the past few years, some things have remained. Like her friendship with Jane. But even that is threatened when Jane stumbles across a wormhole in London.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the next story in the Glass 'verse!

Darcy juggled tucked her cell phone between her head and shoulder as she fought with the keys to her office. “Hey, Eric, it’s Darcy. Have you heard from Jane?”

”No,” Eric said finally, softly. “She mentioned something about anomalous readings and left in a hurry with that new intern of hers.”

Darcy groaned. What new intern? “Thanks, Eric. We were supposed to meet for lunch.”

This time she could hear Eric’s smile. “So you figured you’d call and remind her? Well, if she comes back, I’ll let her know.”

”Thanks,” she said. “Say hi to Ayanda for me?”

She hung up after a polite farewell and finally got the door to lock. The problem with the office being in a historic building was that renovations could only go so far... and even Asgard’s tech couldn’t fix a door that refused to shut without it being a workout. Settled buildings, hah.

Things had changed so much in the past year. Like, Darcy’s whole world. After her introduction to the negotiations... the expressions on the men’s faces was a memory she revisited every time she wanted to reassure herself that yes, she was awesome. Dude, she was married to Loki. Their penchants for mischief were well matched, even if she didn’t indulge near as often as he did. But that was his role, for lack of a better term.

Hers... a little more complicated. No outsider had married into the royal family in generations. Even Frigga had been a known quantity, even if she did come from Vanir. And that was a subject that got danced around all too frequently. The history of Asgard... Darcy knew Thor had a team of researchers trying to find out exactly what Odin had erased from official records, but Odin was being decidedly uncooperative and Frigga was playing peacekeeper. It was a full-time job these days. But she did manage to pass along some information. Like the name ‘Hela’. Which was why Odin was being so awful, because that was never meant to have gotten out. No one had been able to get anyone to talk or find mention of someone with that name, but Thor was not going to give up on his quest.

And Loki’s quest wasn’t going much better. He knew the other Infinity Stones were out there somewhere. He just couldn’t find them. Reality - missing. Time - missing. Space - in Asgard. Soul - missing. Mind - in Asgard (but Loki didn’t feel the same hum that he so vividly remembered... and wondered exactly what SHIELD had given him). Power - with the Nova Corps. Darcy sighed. She was getting so tired of the interference from different governments. Why could they not see this was so important? Thanos was coming and he was going to destroy them all.

Darcy climbed into the embassy’s car and pulled out her cell phone. She was going to try Jane again. Maybe this time she would answer. Darcy shook her head. If the battery wasn’t dead or tucked too deep into a bag so she didn’t hear it go off.

“Hello, um, Jane Foster’s assistant Ian speaking,” a man picked up. “How may I help you?”

”Hi, Ian, this is Darcy. Jane and I wear supposed to meet for lunch.”

“Oh, um. Well,” Ian stammered. “Can you come meet us? We, well, Jane, found something and she’s disappeared.”

Darcy straightened. “What’s your address?”

Darcy repeated it to the driver. The car peeled into traffic and headed in the direction of the Thames. She ended the call after reassuring Ian she was on the way and clung to her phone. Her ever present guard glanced at her, but said nothing. She wasn’t in any danger. God, but Jane was. Disappeared. How the hell had she disappeared?

It took too long to get there. London traffic was terrible on a good day and today seemed to be a bad one. If they got stuck behind someone poking along doing five below the limit, it was raining. Or if the rain stopped, there was an accident. Darcy was ready to scream by the time the car pulled into an abandoned lot surrounding an old warehouse. She tilted her head. What was Jane doing here?

A gangly looking young man with sandy hair stood in the middle of the parking lot. There were a few nervous-looking kids with him. Darcy’s guard gave her a look. She sighed, but stayed put until he went to check out the situation. The car was built with the best Asgardian tech within an Earth framework. No one could hurt her while she was inside it. Better that way. Loki feared assassins. Darcy knew exactly why. There hadn’t been any close calls, but the rumors... yeah, she had no desire to risk her life unnecessarily.

The guard returned and let her out. He walked her over to the small group. Darcy shot a grin at the kids and then held out her hand to the man. “Hi, I’m Darcy.”

”Ian,” the man said. He glanced at Darcy’s guard.

The guard nodded once in acknowledgment. He did look rather strange in his suit and tie compared to Darcy’s rather more casual dress. “Hogarth.”

“Okay, then,” Ian said. “Look, the kids found something weird. They were here first. Jane just noticed it back at the lab. It’s... easier to explain.”

Darcy’s guard went white when he saw the linked wormholes and the way the truck floated at a touch. He hustled her out of there and back to the car. Darcy glared at him. “Jane is in there somewhere!”

“And you aren’t going to be the one to find her,” Hogarth snapped back. “I’m calling in a team from the embassy.”

Darcy took a deep breath. He was just doing his job. Right. “I’ll contact the appropriate departments.”

Ian and the kids had also left the building, following them. The kids, for the first time, looked frightened. Darcy had just pulled out her phone when one of them hesitantly asked what they were doing.

“Calling people in who can investigate that and look for our friend,” Darcy said. “Hogarth won’t let me get involved.”

The kid snickered. “Overprotective boyfriend?”

”Bodyguard doing his job,” Darcy replied lightly. The kids looked even more scared.

Ian blinked. “Bodyguard?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. She was never going to start calling people at this rate. “Did Jane mention anything about me?”

”No?” Ian said. “She said something about her friend coming into town on business and a lunch meeting, but not that you had a bodyguard. Are you famous or something?”

Darcy stared at him. Was he really that oblivious? “Her boyfriend’s my brother-in-law.”

Ian’s eyes widened. His mouth snapped shut and his eyes finally kept firmly away from her chest. “Oh.”

She shook her head and opened the car door to sit while she made her calls. Hogarth corralled the kids and started telling them stories about Asgard while they waited for the English authorities to arrive.

When the police arrived, the kids attempted to scramble. They obviously did not want to have to deal in any way with the authorities. But Darcy, as sympathetic as she was, did not care. They had information to share on Jane’s disappearance and she would get it out of them. She sighed and looked at her hands. They’d started shaking a bit. Oh, yeah. Lunch. She’d missed it.

Darcy dug around in the car for the small snacks the embassy kept in there just in case one of their oh-so-important dignitaries became peckish. She pulled open the drawer and stared down at its contents. Well, at least there was a banana. She’d just pulled back the peel when someone knocked on the top of the car. She turned.

Hogarth sighed. “When you’re finished, my lady, there is an officer who would like to speak with you.”

Read: it was time for her interview. Darcy sighed, but took the banana with her. The officer could deal. She was hungry and needed to eat something. Darcy walked across the cracked pavement, eating her snack as she went. The two officers waiting did not look impressed.

“I missed lunch,” Darcy said.

Still nothing. She sighed. Okay, then. Then the questions began and it was clear right from the start that they hadn’t talked to Ian. She glanced over at the gawky man. No, he was being interviewed by someone else. And he was apparently frustrated by the ways his arms were flapping.

Still, once the officers realized that she was actually cooperating and giving as full answers as she could, they chilled out a bit. And really, who could blame them? They were technically reporting a missing person in a warehouse that had a floating truck and a portal that sent things cycling on an ever-repeating cycle.

Come to think of it, Loki would probably want to see that. She hadn’t really spoken to him since she arrived in London two days ago aside from brief calls at night. He remained in New York, trying and failing to get the US government to understand why he did not desire Secret Service protection.

And she knew that he wasn’t telling her everything. That haunted look was back in his eyes. She didn’t press. But the instant she was back she was going to lock themselves into their apartment and wait for him to tell her.

“Did you try and look for Dr. Foster?” one of the officers asked.

“Hogarth wouldn’t let me,” Darcy said. The banana peel dangled from one hand, but there wasn’t a trash can anywhere nearby. And she sure wasn’t going to just toss it and get automatically fined for littering.

The officers shot a look at Hogarth, who stared back impassively. One of them shook his head. “Why do you think that?”

”He didn’t think it was worth risking my life,” Darcy said with a shrug.

One of the officers opened his mouth to say something, then paused. He stared over Darcy’s shoulder. She turned, seeing only a woman walking out of the warehouse before Hogarth stepped in front of her. Darcy poked him in the back and peered around to take a second look.

That was Jane.

Holy shit, where had she been? Teams of police had swarmed through the warehouse and found nothing. Found no trace of her. Darcy darted around Hogarth and ran over.

“Jane, where the hell where you?”

Jane just motioned blankly at the gathered people. “Who called the police?”

“What were we supposed to do?”

“Not call the police?” Jane snapped. “We have a stable gravitational field, unimpeded access-”

”You were gone for three hours. No one could find you.”

Jane stopped mid-rant. She stared at Darcy. “What?”

Darcy took a breath. “Jane, you missed our lunch. So I called your phone and your intern Ian picked up and said you were missing. So we drove here and you were still gone and there was that gravitational anomaly of yours and you weren’t there. So Hogarth freaked out and yes we called the police.”

“Three hours?” Jane seemed hung up on that. “How-” she started pacing. “That- well, I found myself in a , well, it sure wasn’t the warehouse. Oh my god, I walked through the field. It’s a wormhole. I need my equipment. Darcy, call Eric and Ayanda and have them-”

”Jane.” Darcy grabbed her friend by the shoulders.

Almost instantly, a burst of red light knocked Darcy off her feet. She flew backwards into something and crashed to the ground. Around them, she could hear screams and the tinkle of broken glass. She opened her eyes and rolled off whatever she landed on. Hogarth groaned from beside her. He’d been the one to catch her. He looked fine, but he and Darcy blinked at each other. What the hell was that?

Jane.

Darcy scrambled to her feet and looked for her friend. She lay on the ground in a heap, not moving. Everyone else was just starting to stand from where they’d been knocked down or from where they’d hidden behind something. It looked like all the glass in the police car windows had shattered.

She moved towards Jane, only to have Hogarth grab her arm. “Let me go!” Hogarth immediately obeyed, but Darcy could tell the order was against every single grain of sense that he had drilled into him about protecting her. “I need to check on Jane.”

Hogarth shook his head in negation before she could move. “Has she ever done that before?”

”No,” Darcy said, at a complete loss. “Never.”

He frowned. “And I have never heard of such a thing in an unmodified person.” He looked at Jane. No one had approached her. The police were slowly regrouping, clearly as unsure about the situation as they were.

Well, as unsure as Hogarth was. Darcy just wanted to help her friend. She drew herself up and looked at her bodyguard. “If you don’t want me near her, then you go check on her.”

Hogarth’s expression eased a little. “Thank you, my lady. I will do as you ask.”

Darcy folded her arms around herself as Hogarth walked over to Jane. She’d begun to stir, then sat up and put a hand to her head. Hogarth knelt next to her and began talking. He took care not to touch her. Darcy couldn’t hear them.

“Are you all right?”

Darcy turned. It was one of the EMTs and she held a first aid kit in one gloved hand. “Ma’am, you’re bleeding.”

“What?” Darcy glanced down at herself. “Oh.”

Her hands had been scraped raw from where she’d been flung headlong into Hogarth. She must have landed awkwardly on top of him and scraped them on the pavement.

“Do you mind if I examine your injuries?” the woman asked. Darcy stared down at her bleeding hands, then nodded and held them out.

Within minutes, they were rinsed and swaddled in bandages. Darcy thanked the EMT, then glanced over at Jane. Hogarth was helping her stand. She looked ill and about ready to collapse.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said to the EMT, who was still hovering over her. “But I think... there is no hospital in London that can look at whatever the hell happened to her effectively. I’m taking her to Asgard.”

Darcy walked over. Jane looked at her with bleary eyes. “Darcy-”

”We’re taking you to Asgard,” Darcy said. She looked around, making sure everyone was well back from them. “Hopefully they can figure out what happened to you.”

Jane closed her eyes and rested her head against Hogarth. “Please.”

”Heimdall,” Darcy said. “Can you pick us up? And notify the palace we need healers?”

A rainbow of light answered and whisked them away.


	2. Chapter 2

Jane had spent time in the healing chambers before, but she had never been an overnight patient. Darcy hugged herself as she paced back and forth in the waiting area, but she was not allowed in to the examination room. She could hear Jane talking to the technicians about the the technology they were using to exam her. Which meant that she was doing okay, or doing a really good job at hiding that she wasn’t okay.

Thor watched her pace. He had spoken not a word since Darcy brought Jane here. He’d met them in the Observatory and just watched with a too-still expression as the healers strapped Jane into their version of an ambulance and carried her off to the palace. He was King. He could not carry her in his arms the entire way. Dignity of the office and all the jazz. He chafed under the constraints of his position.

She couldn’t think of a thing to say to him.

Darcy whipped around as the outer door to the waiting room flew open. Odin stormed inside. He speared his son and daughter-in-law with that piercing gaze. Thor stood, grasping his hammer.

“Where is she?” Odin demanded. He did not even wait for an answer before going to the door to the healing room. He opened it and disappeared inside before Darcy or Thor could stop him.

Thor growled under his breath and followed. Darcy sighed. Really? Did no one respect Jane’s privacy anymore? She was going to wait right here.

An explosion of shouting changed her mind. Darcy stepped into the room and grabbed a healer. “What is going on?”

The woman grimaced. “The All-Fat- Lord Odin came in proclaiming something about a weapon and ordering Lady Jane confined to quarters.”

Oh, _fantastic_. Darcy thanked the healer and sent her out of the room. The woman looked absurdly grateful. She didn’t want to get caught in the fight at all. Eir, the other healer present, hadn’t left Jane’s side. And was also glaring at Odin. Well, good. At least someone was being professional in this mess.

“-ignore them completely?”

Darcy rolled her eyes at Odin’s words. And face-palmed at Thor’s. “Father, she is ill. And we can help her.”

“No!” Odin said. “No one can help her. She is dying. And neither you nor anyone in the Nine Realms or beyond can prevent that.”

Right, this stupid thing again. Darcy had enough. “Odin, if you don’t have any constructive reason to be here, get out.”

He spared a glance her way. “Your impudence is not welcome at this time.”

Darcy crossed her arms. “Nor is your presence.”

Thor’s mouth twitched. He smoothed away his amusement just as Odin turned around to face him again. Odin just looked at his son.

“She is mortal,” he said. “Illness is a defining characteristic.”

”I’m not ill!” Jane cried. She was sitting up on the Soul Forge and glaring at Odin. She knew from experience that he wouldn’t respect anything other than strength and that her fear gave her. Darcy moved to stand next to her. “I don’t know what you call it when I destroy things with this energy inside me, but I am not ill.”

For the first time, Odin looked intrigued. “What energy? What have you done, you foolish girl?”

Jane’s expression flashed between outrage, astonishment, and fear. “I found myself in a portal. There was this large black block. I touched it and all this red energy poured into me.”

Odin stepped over to Jane. She held up one arm, showing the streams of red running through her body. Darcy shuddered. It looked nasty. God, she couldn’t imagine what Jane must be feeling right now.

“That’s impossible,” Odin breathed. He stepped back, looking shrunk. He did not look at Thor or Darcy or the healer. “Come with me.”

Jane glanced at Thor before sliding off the Soul Forge and following Odin out of the room. Thor didn’t even look at Darcy before he left. Darcy sighed and turned to the healer.

“Eir,” Darcy said, slightly exasperated. “Is there anything we can do to help Jane?”

Eir looked relieved- and peeved. “Well, at least one of you has some sense.” She turned towards the Soul Forge and activated it. “If you look at these readings, well, whatever it is that has infected her is trying to protect itself. And it will eventually kill her.”

Darcy wavered. “What? I’m sorry, what?”

”The infection will kill her, Princess,” Eir said. “Either slowly if she does nothing to aggravate it, but no body - not even an Asgardian one - is designed to hold that much sheer raw power.”

She could not image Jane dead. Not her friend, not in this universe. Not her smart, funny, brilliant, oblivious scientist of a best friend. They shouldn’t get along so well but Darcy complemented her, made the two of them work so well. They were still in contact. Everyone else... had just faded. Two different worlds. It hurt when Darcy thought about it. So she tried not to.

But she could so easily image Jane dying. That wasn’t hard at all. She’d experienced the infection defending itself personally. A wave of pure power that impacted anything in its path without regard for rhyme or reason. She could imagine that energy turned on its host, exploding... no. Not thinking that. Nope. But the half-formed image lingered. Jane’s face in utter agony as her body tore itself apart.

“Do you have any idea what is is?” Darcy eventually asked when she got her thoughts out of panic mode and into something resembling actual productive thought. You couldn’t get infected with energy just by touching a rock.

Energy out of a rock. Darcy’s stomach flipped. No, that couldn’t be possible. It could not...

“Hold that thought,” Darcy told Eir as she moved towards the door. Then she hiked up her skirts and ran.

She skittered to a halt in the main corridor of the healing wing and glanced around. Which way had they gone. They couldn’t be that far ahead. The Healing Halls records? No, the library. And Darcy’s brain skittered in another direction. The Vault.

Her guard - not Hogarth, she’d relieved him of duty upon arrival at the palace - let out a muffled curse as she took off in a new direction. Let Odin handle Jane right now. He obviously had some idea of what was going on. And Thor could protect her. Something else crossed her mind and it was just as important. A way to test her suspicions. A way to prove herself wrong.

The guards standing watch at the Vault stepped aside for her. Darcy walked in and stopped to take a breath. The treasures of Asgard and beyond lingered in this room. She glanced at a few of them, but ignored them in general. She was here on a mission.

She hesitated a brief moment, then motioned her guard over. “I need a bag.”

He rolled his eyes. “Princess, did you not have enough sense to bring one?”

She shrugged. “I was in a rush.” Then she glanced down at her dress. Her layered dress. That would work. She reached down and tore the second layer off. Jarl, her new guard, made a distressed noise. Oops. It would have to be Jarl on duty right now. He fought and partied and designed dresses for his daughters in his spare time. Given his druthers, he would have preferred to not follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Einherjar, but what was done was done. At least she was easy to guard. Mostly.

Darcy scooped the Tesseract into the makeshift bag, then stalked across the chamber to the Chitauri scepter. She stared down at it with loathing. Her hand shook as she picked it up. If Loki could see her now.... she winced at the thought. He wasn’t here to see the source of so much of his trauma carried in her hands. He didn’t need to know.

She didn’t care what she looked like as she marched back through the palace. Darcy noted more guard patrols. And Hogarth stepped out of a corridor to take a spot beside her. Jarl did not leave. Okay, something was definitely going on.

Eir looked up from whatever she was reading on her device and set it to the side. She hadn’t left the examination room. Darcy really needed to do something nice for her. She didn’t have to wait... or maybe she did. Darcy hadn’t forbidden her from leaving, but she had very definitely strongly implied it. One year had in no way accustomed her to her new station.

Darcy laid her burdens on the Soul Forge. “Can you examine these?” she asked Eir. “And tell me how they compare to whatever is inside Jane?”

Eir nodded, a trace of fear appearing in her eyes. “Of course.”

She activated the Soul Forge and began her examination. Darcy fretted a bit. Hogarth and Jarl had exchanged a look. Jarl remained inside the room and Hogarth stepped out to watch the entrance.

The walls shook. Jarl threw Darcy to the floor and waited for the tremors to cease. Darcy peeked up through her guard’s arms. Eir was clutching the Soul Forge both hands. The light from it did not hide the sudden pallor in her face. Darcy pushed Jarl off, but he did not budge until certain that nothing else would happen.

Darcy stood. She took a deep breath. “I’ll be back,” she told Eir. “I’m going to see what happened.” She glanced at the scepter and the bag holding the Tesseract. “Let me know when I return, please.”

Eir nodded. Darcy walked out into the waiting room. Hogarth frowned. “I hear screams.”

Darcy didn’t care. “I need to know what’s going on.”

He shook his head, but she was not going to listen to anything he had to say. Something had happened and it was her responsibility to handle it. Because Odin and Thor were too involved with Jane’s problem and that meant she was the only person on Asgard who could.

Find Frigga. If there was some kind of natural disaster, she’d know what to do. Hogarth opened the door to the healing wing. Chaos. Healers and assistants were running everywhere with supplies. Bandages lay heaped in arms as people scurried around.

Hogarth grabbed the only person any of them could see with empty arms. “What is happening?”

The assistant blinked. “We’re under attack. We’ve been ordered to prepare for mass causalities.”

”Who’s attacking us?” Darcy asked. Ordered, more like. She needed answers, fast.

The man shook his head. “We weren’t told.” He bit his lip. “We need Eir.”

”You can have her,” Darcy said. She went back to the examination room. Eir looked up. “We’re under attack.”

Eir didn’t waste a moment. She shut the Soul Forge off and hustled out into the chaos. Hogarth slammed the door shut before Darcy could follow. She stared at him. He gazed back, impassive, then moved to block the door.

Message understood. Darcy staggered to a seat and sat. There was nothing else for her to do but wait and hope for the best. And once it was safe, she was going to get answers. Who would attack Asgard? And why?


	3. Chapter 3

Darcy hated waiting. It felt like she’d been waiting all her life. Waiting to get out of her hometown. Waiting to get out of college and leave. Finally leave. Waiting to leave Puente Antigua. Waiting for Loki. Waiting for Loki, again. Waiting for Odin to acknowledge her like her had Jane (no matter how rudely). Waiting to reveal their secret marriage. Waiting for Asgard to accept her. Waiting for Earth to accept her new role. Waiting for this battle to end. Her life had been nothing but waiting.

Darcy. Hated. Waiting.

But the waiting never ended and she was so tired of feeling stuck. And when the waiting did end, it always seemed to be because of something catastrophic going insanely wrong. Aliens trying to kidnap Jane. Her boyfriend turning out to be an alien prince (okay, not always going catastrophically wrong). Her boyfriend being tortured for two years. Her boyfriend being mind-controlled into attacking New York. She and Jane and Ayanda getting kidnapped by aliens.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the entire room shook. What was going on out there? Her hands remained clenched in the folds of her skirt as she reopened her eyes. A few knickknacks had fallen over, but nothing else seemed amiss. Hogarth remained at the door, his hand on his sword.

Darcy glanced over at the closed door that led to the Soul Forge. What if it was Thanos attacking? Nothing would stand in his way if he decided it was time for him to claim the Infinity Stones Asgard had buried in its vaults.

She ran her hand through her hair and wished in vain for a hair tie instead of the mess it was now. She would much rather leave it down on a day to day basic rather than deal with the elaborate hairstyles half the court ladies insisted on. Give her a simple braid or just a ponytail. Or even a low bun. Darcy had better things to do than sit still on a stool for an hour while someone played with her hair. 

She wasn’t even sure of what the court ladies were after when they dressed to the nines around the Odinsons. She and Loki were happily married and Thor hadn’t stopped mooning over Jane since the moment they met. Darcy smirked. Talk about sparks flying. He’d come back to New Mexico to talk to her about Loki and ended up spending the remainder of the day with Jane on the roof as they talked who knew what.

Jane and Thor. Darcy had no clue what was happening to them right now. Would she leave this room to find them dead? Injured? Had whatever was in Jane protected her/itself? Was she able to control it in any way to defend herself? Her stomach flipped. She hated not knowing. That was worse than the waiting.

It took what felt like hours before Hogarth deigned to release them from her solitude. The thuds and occasional rattles of the walls had given way to screams and moans. Darcy took a deep breath before stepping into the corridor. She could hear the cries from the injured even louder from here. Then she stopped and locked the door, using her own biometrics and keying the lock to the royal family so no one could disturb what was inside. And then she put it out of her mind.

Darcy walked through the healers’ wing, stopping every now and then to talk to one of the mildly injured, trying to get a sense of what happened. And everyone she said talked about flying ships and attackers from legend. Darcy wanted to scream. She wasn’t a native of Asgard. Which legend? There were so many.

Hogarth finally led Darcy away. She couldn’t do any good there and if she lingered she would only be in the way. They walked through the devastated palace. Smoke and dust filled the air. The small group stopped in their tracks at the rubble-strewn corridor right outside the main audience chamber. The door was blocked completely and directly across from it came sunshine. Servants and guards picked through the rubble carefully. An engineer was guiding them in their efforts.

Darcy stared outside where there should not be a hole. Something had crashed into the palace with such force that it tore a hole straight through. No wonder the very walls of the palace shook all the way down to the healers’ wing. What had happened to getting the palace shields up? Had there just not been enough time? Had they failed? Darcy needed to find out and rectify the situation. 

But... they couldn’t have been in there. Odin led the way to where, precisely? The old, wily man never gave up his secrets willingly. Darcy stared at the rubble. Please, please don’t have let them be in there.

“Darcy?”

”Sif!” Darcy whirled to look at her friend. Her long black hair had half-fallen from its high tail and she looked like she’d been crying. A splash of dried blood dashed across her forehead.

“Darcy...” Sif said. “You need to come with me.”

Darcy followed without hesitation. She had never seen Sif so distraught.

Sif led them through the halls of the palace. The destruction lessened the further up they went. Darcy’s stomach stopped flipping and became lead. They were heading towards the royal suites. She licked her lips and picked up her pace to catch up with Sif.

“Sif, what happened?”

Sif let out a shaky breath and stopped walking. “The Dark Elves attacked. They wanted the Aether, the stuff Jane carries. The attack downstairs was only a distraction. Their leader, Malekith, came after Jane himself. Frigga killed him.” She took a breath. “Darcy, I am have not the words to say how terribly sorry I am.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Malekith’s second in command killed Frigga.”

The world went white. Darcy took a deep breath, then another. Sif had continued talking, but Darcy had no clue what she had said. “Sif- Frigga?”

Sif nodded. “The Destroyer killed the Kursed. But... there was nothing anyone, not even Eir, could do to... to prevent-”

”Where?” Darcy bit out. Sif told her. Darcy ran.

 

She skidded to a halt just outside Frigga’s work chamber and forced herself to walk in. No one looked at her. Jane sat curled in a ball in an out-of-the way alcove, chewing on her thumbnail. Darcy thought for one moment of going to her, then all those thoughts fled her head when she saw Odin crouched over Frigga, holding her body gently as tears streamed from his eye. Darcy staggered. She hadn’t wanted to believe it could possibly be true.

Darcy forced herself to walk forward. She touched Thor on his hand. He looked down at her, lost. She wrapped her arms around him. What could she say to him right now? Nothing.

She stepped back and didn’t bother to wipe the tears from her face. “Has Loki been-?”

“I sent Hogun,” Thor said softly, interrupting.

Darcy nodded. She wrapped her arms around herself as the servants cleared away the mess of battle and its grisly aftermath. God, what was going to happen now? Tears bit at her eyes again and she let them fall.

Odin did not move, not even when Loki ran into the room and almost knocked over an Einherjar. Loki staggered to a halt. He crept over to Odin and Frigga with wild, overbright eyes. He crouched down next to the body and ran a hand gently over her hair.

Loki straightened abruptly, eyes flicking around the room. They landed on her and Thor and the wildness eased. He came over on noiseless feet. He and Thor pulled each other into an embrace and stayed locked together like that. They parted with tears streaming down both their faces.

Darcy took Loki’s hand when he stepped beside her and said nothing. There were no words. His mother was dead and life would never be the same.

Then he wrapped her in his arms. Darcy breathed in the scent of him and closed her eyes. It did not hide the low moan Odin released when he finally let the healers take the body of his beloved wife away.

It wasn’t hard to convince Loki to return to their personal rooms. Loki glanced around, at the open windows and the drapes fluttering in the soft breeze. Even up here, motes of debris drifted. Loki made a motion with his hands. The windows slammed shut, trapping them in fire lit darkness. He stood in the middle of the room with bowed head and clenched hands.

“I should have been here,” Loki said.

“You couldn’t have known,” Darcy said, equally softly as she walked over. She looked up at him. “I didn’t know until it was over.”

Loki’s green eyes glittered with anger. “And there is no one left upon whom I can wreck my vengeance.”

No, there was no one. Unless the remaining Dark Elves decided to attack again with Asgard already in disarray, but their leader was dead. And Darcy didn’t know enough about them to determine whether they would retreat or attack in revenge.

Loki stepped away from her and turned to stare at the fireplace. Flames danced, but Loki seemed to be staring beyond them. His hands clenched again. One of the wooden stools near the hearth broke. Darcy flinched. Loki did not notice. He did not even seem to remember she was there.

Darcy retreated to the small, private dining room and called for a servant. After he returned, Darcy poured the pot of hot water into the pot Loki always had clean and waiting. She put the tea into the basket and let it steep. The familiar motions of making tea left Darcy feeling somewhat settled. She’d cried herself out earlier and just felt numb, distant. She dimly wondered how long it would take before she felt normal again. If normal was even the right word. How long it would take before the grief overwhelmed her? That was the question she asked herself and did not know the answer to.

Darcy left the tea and a cup on the small table next to the broken stool. Loki had moved in the ten minutes she’d been out of the room and now lay sprawled in front of the fire. His head rested on a pillow that was half torn apart. Feathers lay scattered across the stone floor. Tears trickled from his closed eyes.

She’d never seen him look so broken.

 

The funeral took place three nights later.

They dressed Frigga in red. A sheer veil covered her face. Her hands clasped a sword. Darcy shuddered. It looked like she could rise from the flower-covered boat at any moment. She wanted to turn away from the eerie sight, but refused to shame herself in that way. Odin pushed the boat into the canal on the start of its long journey through the city towards the ocean and the stars beyond.

Darcy could imagine the crowds that would line it to pay their respects to her. Frigga had been beloved. Asgardians dressed in their finest to catch one final glimpse of the woman who had helped guide Asgard into its current golden age. One of understanding and strength and magic. The mother of its current king and wife of its former. Frigga had walked among them, talked with them, loved them. No one could ever replace her in their hearts.

The small party climbed into their own craft to take them out to the landing. Darcy clung to the handrail the entire time. She needed something to hold onto or she would shake to pieces. Loki stood silent, a sentinel of grief and unexploded rage with nothing to revenge itself on. The Elves had been destroyed. At the back of the boat, Jane stood awkwardly, alone. Darcy could not look at her. The rage she felt, that would be addressed later.

They alighted at the waterfront. Darcy took a breath, glanced over the crowd gathered with balls of light cupped between hands, and took her place at Loki’s side. Jane hung back with Sif and the Warriors Three, welcome but not truly a part of the family. Darcy could not think of that now. Frigga would never see Jane and Thor wed, if they chose to do so. It would forever mar that bright day in the future.

The nebula shone and swirled overhead as dusk deepened to night. The golden city of Asgard gleamed softly. Even the funeral was not enough cause to dull the splendor. Lights were dimmed, but still shone. Darcy felt absurdly grateful for that. It was done for security’s sake, but she truly did not want to stand here in the dark, surrounded by people and alone.

And finally the boat came forth upon the water, a single light in that dark sea. Odin stepped forward, Thor having ceded responsibility of this funeral to his father, Frigga’s husband, bereft. He looked old, now. Darcy almost, almost felt sorry for him. But his actions towards her embittered her to the man. She could not feel sorry for him. But she sure as hell pitied him. He was watching his wife begin her final adventure. The boat drifted on its way across the water.

A flaming arrow flew across the dark to land in the boat. Darcy caught her breath as it lit and became a pyre. She glanced out of the corner of her eye to her husband. Tears pricked at his eyes, but had yet to fall. She held out her hand. He took it and squeezed tight. A hundred more fire arrows followed to burn themselves out in the sea.

The burning boat reached the waterfall at Asgard’s end. Odin lifted Gungir once, his final act with it in his hand, and tapped it on the ground once. Frigga’s boat lifted into the sky. Darcy felt tears stream down her face at the sight. The fire turned to glitter and shine and lifted away into the heavens as the boat plummeted into space. It dispersed, became stardust.

Glowing orbs filled the sky as the people of Asgard released them. They filled the sky. Slowly, so very slowly, everyone dispersed. But they stayed until the light breached the horizon. Only then they did return to the palace. To cry, to mourn, to grieve for someone who would never, ever be there to grace their lives again.


	4. Chapter 4

“How do we get this Aether out of Jane?”

Thor’s quiet question to Eir distracted Darcy from the report she was reading. She looked up from the document listing the cost of replacing the tapestries destroyed in the attack. Eir frowned. She rested her hands on Thor’s massive desk, avoiding the piles of books, documents, and readers.

She took a deep breath. “Frankly, Thor, I have not the slightest idea. Bors’ notes from millennia ago detail that the Aether was a weapon that responded to Malekith’s every whim. It was destructive in its power and very few good withstand it.” She shrugged a single shoulder. “I have no clue how Asgard won the war with them.”

”Through sheer luck,” Loki said. He hadn’t moved from his spot near the window. A reader dangled from one hand. “And apparently, superior tactics.”

Eir nodded, conceding the point. She turned back to Thor. “Sire, she is beginning to fade. The energies the Aether requires for sustainment are beginning to fail.”

”Then we must discover a solution, quickly,” Thor said.

Eir bowed and left. Darcy took a breath, then rolled her neck and stood. She set down the ridiculous report (of all the things that needed repair at the moment, tapestries were somewhere down near the bottom of her list) and walked over to Thor.

“Hey, muscles,” she said. He glanced up. “Go see her. Loki and I got this.”

Thor glanced at his brother, who nodded once. Thor got up and went out the door with alacrity. Loki slid into the chair the moment the door closed behind him. He stared at the piles on the desk. “Has my brother not looked at any of this?”

Darcy perched herself on the armrest. “I think that pile he’s gone through,” she said, pointing. “The top one has his signature, at least.”

Loki sighed. “That is only one stack, Darcy.”

She grimaced. “Yeah, I know.”

She started sorting through the detritus of the desk. Loki shook his head, but joined her. The largest pile soon grew to be the one dealing with the aftermath of the Dark Elves’ attack. And the most urgent. They’d taken enough time off to officially mourn Frigga and it seems like everyone else now needed their problem solved immediately and screw everyone else because they were obviously the most important. It took at least an hour to sort through everything and Darcy had the beginnings of a headache by the end of it.

A servant had brought drinks part way through, but they’d both ignored their thirst in the utter desire to get the task finished. Darcy wandered back to her seat and dumped her half of the urgent pile on the table. She went and poured herself some water. Drinking seemed to help the headache a bit.

Loki had retreated to the window and was staring out through the panels of the screen. His green eyes gleamed in the light. Darcy felt a rush of warmth through her. She bit her lip. Definitely not the time and definitely not the place. With their luck, Thor would walk back in just as things would get interesting. Loki looked over. Darcy blushed. A wicked grin crept across his face.

“Ah, Darcy,” he said. His low voice carried across the room easily. She shivered. “What are you thinking of?”

Her face felt like it was on fire. “Something extremely important,” she finally said. “Quite important to my future happiness, really.”

Loki’s grin turned even wickeder. How was that even possible? She took a deep breath and reminded herself this was Thor’s office. Oh, damn it. She deliberately took a sip of water and licked the remnants from her lips. Loki tracked the movement of her tongue with dark, intense eyes.

She walked over and sashayed her hips as she went. Loki grabbed onto her as soon as she reached him and brought her in for breathtaking kiss. Literally. He was scarcely letting her breath. She didn’t care. She needed this.

“Brother, this is not the place for a tryst.”

Darcy stumbled as Loki released her. She hadn’t heard the door open. Apparently, neither had her husband. They both straightened rumpled clothes and refused to look at Thor until they were decent again.

“My apologies, brother,” Loki said. The reader he held - and had dropped to the floor - floated back into his hand. “We had been left alone.”

”I was not aware you needed supervision,” Thor said. Then stopped. He flushed. “If you have such a need to be with Darcy, I suggest that you use your bedroom.”

Darcy grinned. “That was this morning. And last night.”

Thor buried his face in his hands. “I do not need to hear these things.”

”Ah, but you started it, brother.”

”Get out of my office,” Thor grumbled. “Unless you would actually prefer to- what did you do to my desk?”

Darcy eyed it. Considering the mess it had been earlier, it looked so much better. “We organized it.”

Thor frowned. “It was organized.” He pulled up his chair and sat down. “Mostly.”

“It was the mostly that concerned us,” Loki said.

And now it was back to business. The lust and the levity had pretty much exited the room at this point. Darcy’s headache returned. She went back to her seat and drained the water cup. She went and poured herself more. And this time, she would remember to drink it as she went through the reports.

“How’s Jane?” she asked as she picked up the first one on the pile. Resettlements for those people whose residences had been destroyed in the battle. If there were details - and there would be - her heart was going to break.

“Jane is surviving,” Thor said. “She is awake, most of the time, and doing her best to read as many astronomy books that she can.”

Darcy smiled. Jane would never change. Knowing her, there would be a stack at her bedside. Thor smiled sadly back.

“And Eir still has not the method to remove the Aether safely from her?” Loki asked.

Thor shook his head. “She repeated it while I was visiting. We cannot forcibly remove it without killing Jane and we do not know how to get it out of its host willingly.” He smashed a fist on his desk. A pile of paper slid to the floor. “I cannot just stand by and watch her die!”

Loki and Darcy exchanged a look. He nodded. Okay, so she’d be the one to tell him. If he hadn’t already figured it out.

“Thor-” she said softly. “There is a way. If it’s what Loki thinks it is, there is a chance.”

Thor shook his head. “Darcy, I have investigated everything Asgard knows about Infinity Stones. But we do not know which one it is. My father neglected to mention that and we have no way of knowing aside from apocrypha.”

“It’s the Reality Stone,” Loki said.

Darcy glanced over at his tone. He looked ill. The reader was back on the floor. His fists were clenched at his sides. She made to stand, but he jerked his head in a negative. He did not want her right now.

“Are you positive, brother?” Thor ask, rising from his desk. Mjolnir was already in his hand. Lightning sparked around the hammer. Darcy’s eyes widened. She’d never seen that before.

“Quite.” He took a breath. “It is the only possible one. We have the locations of the Space, Mind, and Power stones. It cannot be Time as none of us have lost or repeated days. It is not Soul, as the location of that is known and yet also lost. Therefore it has to be Reality.”

A servant knocked, delivered more document, bowed and left. Darcy remembered to drink more water as Thor sorted what had been delivered. Loki picked up his reader again, but was only flipping it over and over in his hands. Darcy frowned. He was almost done for the day, she knew. He couldn’t always work through the mess of his mind and when he forced himself to, the anger and fear always exploded later.

“Darcy, this one is for you,” Thor said. He held out a single paper with her name scribbled on it.

She grabbed the report from Eir and stared at the brief summation. “It’s definitely an Infinity Stone,” she said. Thor and Loki stared at her. “The power fluctuations and energy readings are a match for the Tesseract.”

Loki swore soft and viscous under his breath. “We cannot keep three Stones in Asgard, Thor. Thanos will make us his first target. You went against my advice regarding the Mind Stone. Will you not heed me now?”

Darcy’s hands started to shake. The rattle of paper drew Thor and Loki’s attention. Darcy took a breath. That was the other half of the report Darcy held.

“There’s only two,” she forced herself to say. “The Mind Stone we have is a fake.”

Rage dawned in Loki’s eyes. “SHIELD. HYDRA. They took advantage of us. That mistake must be rectified.”

”You will not depart until the Aether is out of Jane,” Thor said.

Loki bowed mockingly. “Of course not, brother.”

Thor sighed. “I need you to come up with a way to contain it.”

Loki straightened. The rage was hidden, but the mocking was gone. “There are other sorcerers on this realm, Thor.”

”And I trust none of them as much as I trust you, brother,” Thor said. “And I will heed your advice. The Reality Stone will go elsewhere.”

Darcy settled back into her seat after handing Loki Eir’s report on his way out, saying he needed to research energy containment vessels. Darcy and Thor stared at each other for a brief moment, then they both bent their heads to their respective piles.

There were times it sucked being in charge of a planet. Sometimes, you had to do what was best for everyone and damn the individual. This was one of them.

 

“Jane, you do not have to do this.”

Jane smiled at Thor. Her face was pale, but absolutely determined. “Thor, I’m either going to die because I can’t contain an Infinity Stone or it’s going to kill me getting it out.” She took a deep breath. “If I die, at least I’m satisfied with what I’ve done.” She gave a short laugh. “I proved that my theories about Einstein-Rosen Bridges were right. I’m even-” she grinned at Thor with joy. “I’m even dating an alien. So if this thing kills me, I’ll die satisfied.”

Darcy let out a slow breath. Jane was not going to die. She couldn’t prevent it, but she sure as hell was going to do her best not to allow it. Eir and a team of Asgard’s top healers stood just feet away. Loki held the containment box he and Asgard’s Sorcerer Supreme created. It just might be enough to contain it, and the Sorcerer Supreme had let slip about some assistance with it from a colleague on Midgard. (So that was something else she and Loki needed to look into. He was more focused on the Mind Stone. And she was far better with wheedling information from people. She had a thing called tact. Didn’t always use it, but becoming a princess had taught her real fast about expectations and manners.)

“So this is the Reality Stone,” Jane said softly. “What do I do, wish on it?”

Everyone tried not to look at Loki. As much as he hated to be reminded of it, he was the only person present who had actually wielded a Stone. Loki’s jaw clenched, but he answered.

“If you are strong enough,” Loki said. His tone was just the slightest bit mocking. Jane narrowed her eyes. “Then you command reality to be as you desire. It will respond.”

Jane mouthed ‘if you are strong enough’ then her narrowed eyes turned into an outright glare. Loki looked bored. Jane closed her eyes and let out a breath.

Nothing seemed to happen at first. Darcy folded her arms around herself and found herself almost praying that it would work. The Soul Forge gleamed gold over Jane, the swirling currents almost mesmerizing.

Slowly, slowly shimmering red ribbons coalesced around Jane. She breathed out and the ribbons wrapped around her. Darcy tensed. Jane breathed in and the ribbons unwound. Jane opened her eyes. They gleamed red for an instant, then faded to their normal brown. In front of her the ribbons twined around themselves, just like the Asgardian children’s ball.

Loki darted forward. The Aether surged towards the box. Loki twisted it together, sealing it the moment Jane fell forward onto her hands. The black box glimmered red in the middle. Darcy handed Loki the cage. He shoved it around the box, securing it from opening. He grasped the handle with a white-knuckled grip. Darcy wished she could take the thing away, but he would not trust anyone else with it. Not until it was time to send it away.

The moment Jane collapsed the healers rushed forward. Darcy could scarcely see her through the crowd. She stepped back and waited. She could do nothing now.

It seemed to take forever before Eir turned towards Thor with a smile. “She will be all right, your majesty. She needs rest, and sustenance. If she improves at a good rate, I will feel comfortable releasing her tomorrow morning.”

Everyone relaxed. The crowd around Jane dispersed. Darcy walked over and smiled at her friend. Jane smiled back, utterly exhausted. Darcy squeezed her hand and let Thor take her place. They had a short, murmered conversation as Jane very obviously fought against sleep. She did not win that battle.

They left the room so she could rest in peace. Loki shoved the box at Sif the moment they stepped outside. She took it without hesitation.

“Word has already been sent ahead,” Loki said. “One of my trusted agents has already given the Collector notice that you are coming. And why.”

”Was the wise?” Volstagg asked.

Thor shrugged. “Would it be safer to approach unannounced? Possibly. But at least we have given him warning of what he needs to contain.”

Sif gave a short nod of acknowledgment. “We leave now.”

Loki watched them walk away with clenched fists. Darcy rested her head on his shoulder. He relaxed only the slightest bit he could. He would remain tense until the Mind Stone was found.

As soon as Jane was ready to return to Midgard, so would they. And then the hunt would begin. Darcy could not bring herself to pity anyone who stood in their way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


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